Exclusive: Arsenal in late January swoop as they table defender bid

Arsenal have made a bid for Leicester left-back Ben Chilwell, Football Insider sources understand.

The Premier League giants have made an offer for the highly rated 19-year-old in an attempt to prise him from the King Power Stadium in the final days of the January window.

An Arsenal recruitment source has told Football Insider that the Gunners’ bid is worth £4million including performance related add-ons.

Leicester have held firm this month in the face of sustained interest from Arsenal as well as Liverpool, and have opened discussions with Chilwell’s representatives about extending his contract, which runs until the summer of 2017.

The Premier League leaders are ready to up the academy graduate’s deal from £800-a-week to £8,000-a-week in a bid to keep him.

The England Under-20 international spent the first half of the season on loan at Huddersfield and then started both legs of Leicester’s FA Cup third-round clash against Tottenham.

Manager Claudio Ranieri has insisted that Chilwell is not for sale and is a huge part of the club’s future.

“We are building and looking for good, talented young players,” Ranieri said earlier this month. “For this reason Ben Chilwell and Demarai Gray are with us and this is our goal now, to build with talented young players.

“Ben is our future and he stays with us. He had a very great match against Spurs, he was sure and outstanding. I am very surprised with how well he played, but that is what I wanted.”